The drop in Mendocino County and Willits area single family home values appears to have leveled off in recent months, leaving September regional home values at June 2002 levels.

Willits area home values have dropped by about 16 percent in the past year compared with 9.5 percent countywide and 6.5 percent in California according to data provided by Zillow.com.

Foreclosures continue to have a significant effect on Mendocino County real estate, with an average of 30 homes sold monthly at auction during the past year. The Willits area has averaged nine foreclosure sales per month during the same period. Lenders have maintained a stable inventory of about 250 bank-owned homes, selling off foreclosed homes at nearly the same pace as acquiring new ones.

In the past 10 months there have been 440 homes sold in Mendocino County through a real estate listing and nearly 60 percent of these involved either a short sale or foreclosure.

Foreclosures typically sell at between a 20-to 50-percent discount over a similar non-distressed property. High percentages of foreclosed properties in the sales mix depresses market prices and leads to lower home values.

Lenders continue to set the pace in the foreclosure process with 12.3 percent of all loans in the country delinquent but foreclosures have been initiated on only one-third. Once the notice of default is issued on a property, in California it now takes 11 months to conclude the foreclosure sale. Nationwide three-quarters of all loans in foreclosure have not had a payment made in a year or more. “These delays help the banks by allowing them to keep bad loans on their books at inflated values, while leaving in limbo the millions of homeowners that are already in default. The housing market will not recover until we move beyond these delays,” says CEO of ForeclosureRadar.com Sean O”Toole.

Many analysts concur with O”Toole that there will be no rebound in home values until the foreclosure “bubble” is behind us. Nationwide in September there were more than 4 million property loans either delinquent or in foreclosure. While the pace of foreclosure processing continues to be steady in California, the state no longer is in the top tiers of foreclosure states. California now ranks 27th in the nation in foreclosures with 3.2 percent in foreclosure and 7.6 percent more delinquent. The hardest hit state currently is Florida where 14.2 percent of homes are in foreclosure and 8.7 percent more are delinquent, according to data provided by Lender Processing Services Mortgage Monitor.

The percent of all homes in foreclosure remains at an all time high running nearly nine times the historic rate. Delinquencies continue at twice pre-recession rates having eased from the peak in January 2010.